Bring Back the Summer
by Eliza Darling
Summary: Retelling of The Ties that Bind, the Ties that Break from Hux's perspective. Hux lets himself indulge in everything having to do with Rey before their rescue by the Resistance. Whatever they share here on this planet is all they'll ever have.


**So I know it's been forever, but I've honestly been so busy with my new job that I rarely have had time to write. Of course I started this in May, ugh, and just got it done now before the movie comes out. And of course I can't leave this story alone because I just suck that much. So here's the chapter no one asked for: the last chapter of _The Ties_ told in Hux's perspective.**

 **Also this is the most Reyux song to ever Reyux so please look up "Bring Back the Summer" by Rain Man ft. Oly. I recommend the original and the Not Your Dope remix for max feels.**

" **Bring Back the Summer"**

" _I never, I never want another._

 _Come back, come back to me, my lover._

 _I never, I never want another._

 _Bring back, bring back, bring back, back the summer."_

To admit that the last thing he looked forward to was the inevitable landing of the Resistance finding them on this damned remote planet was to truly admit defeat. There was this sense of… obligation he felt around Rey, who, ever since she finally contacted whoever she needed to contact through the Force, seemed so down. Like he needed to hold his head up for the both of them, he supposed. This affair had been doomed from the start—he'd known it since its inception. That kiss had doomed completely, making him realize that, even if the Resistance ever let him back to the First Order, things would never be the same. He couldn't think of their damned peskiness to the cause without _humanizing_ it in the form of Rey.

And, he figured, she probably thought the same way. They'd ruined each other, in every possible way a person could be ruined.

He'd never thought about a woman like that before Rey. Had never kissed one. Had never been touched like that. Maratelle had always led him to believe that thinking that way, laying with someone who was clearly so wrong, would ruin his life, and perhaps it did.

But he understood why his father did exactly what he did, with the young kitchen worker who served him specialty pastries. He did not forgive him—no way in hell—but he _got_ it. Because, in those moments where he pressed his forehead to Rey's, could feel the pleasure build in the pit of his stomach as he moved with her, joined with her, the whole galaxy seemed to melt away. There was no Resistance, no First Order. There was just _her_ , filling up his mind and body as she responded to him, her hazel eyes dark and dilated, her hair framing her face like a halo.

This was theirs and only theirs to share, to know even happened. There was no adultery, no messy ends they couldn't cut. When she brought up that, when the Resistance did arrive, they shouldn't even be _touching_ , he agreed completely. No one could know they'd been fraternizing. He was too old for her. She was on the other side of the war, believed in something he hadn't even known to be true until Kylo Ren had shown up in his life. Trying to keep such a terrible romance going, no matter how tempting, was nothing short of a horrid idea.

Usually there was that distance between them when they dressed and she took the first watch, but lately she'd been so reluctant to change, reluctant to leave him. Her arms would tighten around his neck as he rolled off her, spent, her legs intertwining with his to tangle them further together.

"Rey, Rey…" he panted, moving his hands up to try and take her off. She was so _warm_ —somehow he didn't mind it in all the humidity.

"Let's just… sleep," she pushed, not relenting. It was like, the more he struggled, the more she held on. "Together."

Would it get too stuffy, he wondered. Doing these activities with her was one thing, but it was an entirely different thing to really lay beside her, to see her _right there_ when he woke up. And what happened to their watches to make sure they stayed safe?

And then he started to think: what did it really feel like to have this warm presence with him the whole night? What was it like to have someone who actually cared about him pressed against his body for such a long amount of time?

When would this opportunity ever arise again?

"I'm not—" He blinked, realizing that, despite their activities done and over with, his heart was _still_ pounding from the idea.

" _Please_?" And now she was begging, those huge eyes staring up at him. They were still a bit dilated. "We've only so much time before…"

Yes. Before the Resistance rescued them. Before they'd be separated from this planet. From each other.

"I can keep us safe, Tage, you know that." He felt her cheek nuzzle into the crook of his neck, her breath hot against his skin.

His brow furrowed a bit at that. "Tage?" he repeated. Was that in a different language, or…?

"Oh." Rey pulled away slightly, and he couldn't tell if that blush on her cheeks had been from the intercourse or from her comment. "It just slipped. After you told me your name, I just…" She cleared her throat. "I'm sorry."

Oh. Tage. Short for "Armitage."

No one had ever thought he was deserving of a nickname before.

Slowly, his arm settled around her shoulders, as a makeshift pillow for her head. Their days were so numbered. They'd already gone this far. He couldn't possibly sink any lower.

Hux fixed his gaze on the stars beyond the canopy. "No, it's… it's fine. You can call me that, if you'd like." As he said it, he realized that he really _wouldn't_ mind. Maybe it'd take some getting used to, but his name never sounded like a curse or a burden when she said it. It almost sounded… pleasant.

"So, is… that a yes?" She looked up at him such hope, such optimism. More than he'd ever seen from her, and it was over something so… small. It didn't have to do about getting out of here, whatever the hell their future held. It didn't even have to do with them kissing. It had to do with… post-coital sleeping.

He had to admit, part of the reason why he was so hesitant was because he _knew_ it would only make things feel so much better in the moment, and only so much worse in the long run. But they'd come this far. He'd had this argument with himself every time she tried something new with him—he'd refuse, then hesitate, then give in, and hate himself all the more for it feeling so _good_.

"You don't doubt my powers, do you?" she asked, when he seemed to just be staring out, blankly. Really, though, he'd been contemplating. Every second she sunk into him, made it all the more difficult to push her away.

"I don't," he assured. Because she would never use that power on him. Wouldn't abuse it. She had this air of responsibility about her, this dangerous respect he couldn't help but hold for her abilities.

Having intercourse with her only barely affected that, he was sure.

"Good." She smiled. Each time she smiled it always confused him, made him think twice about the fact that he _actually_ made someone happy. Someone _chose_ to look at him this way, and now he could stay up for hours thinking about if this would ever happen had they not been stranded here (hint: it wouldn't), the implications of this _one_ event that seemed to change the entire course of their lives.

Rey kissed the corner of his mouth, given he didn't turn back to face her. "Good night." She fell asleep so easily, nuzzled up into the crook of his neck like they were meant to fit together like this.

And he really couldn't stand that he also fell asleep, in what felt like moments after her. The little minx truly held some sort of spell over him.

* * *

He could read her like the clearest of files, understanding just what she was thinking with a simple glance. Even on those days she thought she hid her emotions well, he could tell when she _tried_ , when she was all too obvious. She hadn't been around enough beings to really note all the nuances in her freckled cheeks, her hazel eyes, her furrowed brow.

So he knew _exactly_ when the Resistance would come and retrieve them, just with how her face fell a bit more with the passing days. With her so close when he woke, it made it even easier, her smiles fading into sadness, her arms and legs tightening around him like she never wanted to let go. He could tell how sad she was the more and more she used that accursed nickname, like she would never have the chance to say it again.

To get him to remember her as the girl who didn't call him "General," or say "Armitage" like it was a curse, much like Maratelle and his father so often did.

The songs she used to lull him to sleep became slower, softer, always laced with that melancholy promise of the inevitable. Her hands smoothing his hair back, gentler. The lips against his own, whispering his name… almost like a brush of wind, barely there.

The sex… always more and more passionate, each kiss shared like it was their last. Each tug of hair or sinking of teeth into flesh, a reminder that this was theirs, that this was all they had. The secret promises, burned into each other, where he forgot that there had even been a barrier of affiliation between them in the first place. He left his marks on her, as she did to him—the bruises of his lips on her breast, her nails down his back. The dilated eyes that he would never forget, _trusting_ him to bring her to her peak. That primal, fervent rhythm of flesh meeting flesh, inside and out, this mess and mix of fluid, the sound of her screaming out his name in ecstasy…

"Tage." Full sadness in her voice, in her kiss as she turned to wake him properly. It must be their last full day here.

She dressed almost lethargically, like the clothes she'd been wearing for all these days suddenly had this weight she couldn't take on. So he told her to treat it like it'd been all the other days, where they sparred and swam, and had little a care.

Because, truth be told, his days might actually be numbered. The chances of the Resistance actually letting him go were so slim that here, he could throw all that caution to the wind, and at least say he _lived_ before he died. He knew Rey tried to repress the thought, especially after that fateful day when he'd first taught her how to swim, but their fantasy faded.

No one could live in isolation like this forever.

She suggested they gather firewood early, swimming for most of the day. Hux agreed, even if it didn't follow the normal schedule they usually took on. He held his hand out for her to take as they trekked into the jungle, not thinking about it as she immediately interlaced their fingers together, taking their time.

"Mostly I speak other droid languages," she admitted, and Hux had no idea how they'd gotten to this topic of conversation, but here they were. He held her hand steady as she hopped over a protruding root from the soil. "For organic dialects, I speak the Teedo language. I understand Wookies, but it's actually difficult getting the hang of actually _speaking_ it." She proceeded to make quite the unattractive growl from the back of her throat, before laughing at how ridiculous she sounded.

Even Hux had to smirk at that. "What were you trying to say?" he asked, genuinely curious.

Keeping their hands together, she bent down to gather another branch to add to the growing pile in her arm. "I was trying to say you looked handsome, but Wookies, I think, just have a different makeup to how their mouths and throats are constructed. Probably why they can't speak Basic."

"Probably," he agreed.

* * *

Hux had his meticulous way of piling the firewood, and not once did Rey ever keep him from doing it the way he wanted. So it made sense that she didn't stick around and watch, instead made a show of how she stripped, peeling away her layers of clothing and tossing them aside with a flourish. It certainly distracted him from his work, watching her expose more and more of herself.

He flushed, yes, but he knew the freckles on her hips now, the exact curve of her back. He could see the purple marks he'd left on her chest just the night before. "And this is why you're a little minx," he uttered, because, like the name she'd bestowed on him, it had this strange effect on her.

Rey just waded into the water with a flip of her hair, and Hux lost himself back in his work, back facing the river. There was this rhythmic tempo to which he made his pile, which seemed to waste all too much time (especially on the final stretch of their stranding), yet it had this calming effect on him, making him feel as though this might not be the end of his all-too-pathetic existence.

When he turned, however, he couldn't see Rey's head above the surface.

His chest sunk. Later he'd admit that, for a moment, his heart actually skipped a beat. Stopped because he could not see her.

"Hux—!" Her head darted up briefly to call out his name, before she disappeared under the water again.

"Rey…" he uttered, eyes wide, hands already undoing his belt. Hux did not think as he stripped away his clothes as fast as he possibly could, knowing each second he used was another second of her without air, using up all her energy. Not once did it occur to him that, if it had been the first days they'd been stranded here, he might have just let her drown. Now, the thought of her gone, the thought of not having her, even for these last few moments…

Of course, he'd later try to justify it with knowing the Resistance would show him more mercy if Rey was there to vouch for him. Certainly not because he cared far too much for her over the course of their taboo relationship. Once stripped, he dove into the water and swam toward the blob sinking, kicking desperately, as fast as he could. Luckily he caught hold of her waist, bringing her up to the surface. Of course, she didn't catch the memo, acting like a dead weight the whole way up. In shock, he supposed. But he certainly couldn't allow them to both drown.

She gasped for air, but if she didn't move, they were both going under. "Kick." Like he was talking to one of his soldiers. "I'm not doing all the work here." So she obeyed, helping him swim back to shallower waters. Hopefully she learned _something_ besides sex during their collective time in the water together.

"I'm sorry." Rey tightened her grip around Hux's neck, her eyes downcast on the water. "I just didn't want to _think_."

Sadly he understood. And he wasn't sure why, but his grip tightened around her shaking form. A worried grip, as if to ask if she was fine, in some silent way he couldn't understand.

"Consider us even," he said instead, starting to pull her against him. "You saved my life when the beast attacked, and I just saved you." Would he ever do it again, though, he wondered briefly, if given the opportunity? He had no doubt she would, but would he…? He tried not to think about it. "Are you all right?"

"I am now." Rey pressed her forehead to his shoulder. "Thanks." That warmth emanating from her... it was strange, this feeling he couldn't help pressing against his chest, at the base of his ribs. In the pit of his stomach. From his head to his toes. If she didn't move soon…

Instead, she asked to learn to tread water, and it was the best opportunity to get a hold of himself. What if he _did_ , by some strange miracle, make it back to the First Order? What then? Could he really forget these days of bliss that amounted to more happiness, more confusion, than he'd ever felt in his entire life? Those hazel eyes bore into his as he taught her how to keep kicking, to keep her legs moving. The way she had to cup her hands, keep her head afloat. Rey took it all in with those curious, young eyes, already trying it out.

He hadn't considered how much time they'd spent in the water, ignoring the wrinkles forming on their fingers for her arms around him, her lips on his. Her body pressed against his. Everything about _her_ , from her hair to her eyes to her smile, making the hours pass by like seconds on this last afternoon. This whole baffling time, he tried to pinpoint just _what_ she could possibly see in him, but it never seemed to make sense, other than that they were in a place of convenience, a place where they needed to rely on each other—and that was the tragedy of it all. They'd never give each other the time of day under any other circumstance. Without others to work with, would she even find him even the slightest bit attractive? He seriously doubted it.

"Mind if I just wear your coat?" she asked, already emerging from the water with her catch in tow.

Before he could say yes, Rey already wrapped the coat around her frame, almost like a makeshift towel. But it was as if to say, with how often she did it, that she _knew_ nighttime meant she'd end up with her clothes off. As would he. So Hux quietly complied, only pulling his pants on.

During dinner, they remained silent, nothing except the crackle of the bright fire or the occasional sound of chewing. Hux noted that Rey kept inching closer to him, his coat grazing his bare arm as she threw her bones in the fire, hazel eyes glazed over, taking in the arbitrary, dancing flames as if they had the answers to what would happen to them the day after.

She looked up at him, eyes pleading for one more bout of pleasure, one more romp, one more time. Her lips were on his within a moment, his coat slipping from her shoulders. And now he could gaze upon her slightly marred skin, could reach over and graze his fingers over her ribs, her stomach, her breasts, without that twinge of fear, of knowing that before her, he'd never laid his hands on anyone else like this. He let her age slip away, her affiliation. The fact that he was now so comfortable with her body that he just _knew_ where she wanted to be touched.

This should repulse him, the way his fingers so easily pressed in between her legs, teasing her so he could hear that sweet voice cry out for him. The idea of her tongue, inside his mouth, should disgust him, as should the sweat, her naked self against him. But he could feel his burgeoning arousal, and the involuntary moans he couldn't control escaping. She took off his pants without breaking the kiss, her hands quickly stripping him down without their usual fumbling. Had they really engaged in this activity so often since that fateful day in the water?

He almost pressed inside her when she made the request. "Make it slow." Her hands came up to cup his cheeks, graceful thumbs brushing his cheeks. Those eyes, which conveyed this want and lust and something deeper he couldn't place, gazed up at him with more trust in him than he'd ever seen from anyone.

Hux paused.

" _Please_."

He dove into her with a kiss, driven by those words clouding his mind, her very being consuming every part of him as she wrapped herself around him, surrounded him. Hux hardly flinched when her hands grazed down to the scars on his back, but she remembered he certainly didn't like that, already knowing it was better to thread her hands in the ends of his hair.

Keeping her words in mind, he did indeed try to make his thrusts slow, much as he could feel the impulse to move faster starting to tempt him. But he kept himself steady, burying his moans against her neck, in her mouth, lips pressed to skin when he wasn't panting. Hux lost himself to dilated dark eyes, to the freckles smattering her nose, to the lips that whispered his name so sweetly. "Tage… that's it, right there."

Of course he wanted it to last, his pace rhythmic for as long as he could muster, but when she gave a hint of a smile through her pants, through her moans, when she moved back on him, he couldn't help but speed up a touch. Rey didn't seem to mind, her eyes trained to his with steely determination, set to remember every part of him. After tomorrow, they likely wouldn't…

She moaned his name again, and made him forget. He trained his focus to her pleasure, making sure he couldn't hear himself by suppressing his moans against her lips, in heated kisses. He felt her toes curl, her legs wrap tighter around him. Her voice escalated, lifted above the trees and into the stars with a call of his name as she arched completely into him. It was enough to send him over that edge, latching his mouth onto a mark on her neck he'd just made as he stilled against her, riding out his climax.

Usually he would roll over, let her curl up to his side, but Rey only wrapped her legs around his waist tighter. "No, stay here," she murmured, slowly cradling his head to her chest.

There was a part of him that wanted to protest, because it was their last night. They should keep things routine.

Then again, this was their last night. There was no harm in adding this on to everything else they'd done. While Hux would give even a bit of a protest at her suggestions, this time he succumbed immediately, settling his head against her breast. She brushed her fingers through his hair, across his jaw, and Hux quickly fell asleep to the sound of her slowing heartbeat.

* * *

"Tage." It sounded like a whisper so faint, it must still be part of his dreamless sleep. Or, perhaps, it was already morning, and he didn't have time to savor her as he'd wanted. But when Hux opened his eyes, he could still see the dying embers glowing on Rey's skin, could feel her hands gently threading through his hair. Just from gazing up at her he could tell it was still dark, so he wondered, in his hazed, tired mind, why she had woken him up in the first place.

"Look up," she urged, pointing up briefly at the sky before her hands returned to his hair. So Hux followed that point, shifting against Rey slightly so he could remain wrapped around her.

It was a meteor shower.

Certainly not the first he'd seen in his life, but he'd never thought of how it could feel in the arms of someone else. How so much could change in such a short amount of time, to where the stars crossing the sky could actually… _mean_ something.

"Make a wish." Because it was the only thing they could do now, at this point. But at Rey's insistence, Hux couldn't think of anything he wanted that was within reality's grasp. He wished he couldn't feel anymore, so it wouldn't hurt when the Resistance tore them apart. He wished this silly fling had not happened, so he would never know what it felt like to kiss a woman, or be with her. He wished that, in the aftermath of all this, Rey found some sort of solace without him.

He wished this feeling right here, of Rey so intimately pressed to him, her fingers soothing through his hair, would never leave or cease.

They dozed off together like that, until Hux couldn't see the shower anymore. Hux couldn't tell if he pressed a final kiss to her skin in such a state, but he liked to believe he did. Because after his dreamless, calm sleep, he awoke with the terrible churning in the pit of his stomach telling him that they needed to part. That it was really the end. That there were things that they of course wished they could say to each other, but the time had passed. No longer were they the star-crossed lovers from opposite sides of the war. Now they had to be acquaintances. Near strangers.

Hux tried, in those last hours under the sun, not to look into her desperate eyes, which he knew were pleading for one final moment. A moment to end all of their moments together, to culminate in one last hurrah before everything ended. A lasting embrace, or a desperate kiss, he supposed.

But he couldn't risk it. "Rey. You know we can't. We agreed," he uttered bluntly as he pulled his boots on. It was the only argument he had, because if he let that barrier down one more time… if he let her in one more time…

His life was in the hands of the Resistance now. Everything rested on these final hours, up until Rey could state her case, could somehow still vouch for him. Every few moments Hux seemed to inch himself further and further away from Rey, still feeling that pull to her. Had it been any other situation, with just the two of them, of course he'd let her rest her head on his shoulder, would comfort her. His hands clenched into fists at his sides as they kicked away the burnt wood from last night's fire, as if to erase all traces of everything that had happened.

In those last few moments, Hux let himself take Rey in, stop denying that she actually felt something for him. Every time she _said_ anything to him, the gut reaction was to think she just hadn't met the right person, that she only said such things because that was just their situation. He let himself be selfish.

Rey looked at him with such optimism, gazed at his bright hair and pale skin with glazed eyes without a twinge of disgust. And then, he realized, she never had. She'd always put the affiliation behind her the second they'd crash landed on this planet. Had always had faith things would turn out for the best, no matter how much he had doubted her in the beginning—and still had that faith in whatever their relationship was would still work out.

She… he knew exactly how she felt.

Hux opened his mouth to say something, but the sudden appearance of several ships breaching the atmosphere caught Rey's attention, and she found something else to gaze at, hazel eyes squinting in the sun.

Too late. Too slow, as always.

The realization that his life may just be over crashed upon him in a millisecond, his shoulders slumped, his eyes dejected. Whatever light might have been left in him diminished the moment he saw those ships spot him, lowering quickly to judge his life before Rey could even make her case. He should face it—no matter what she said, how she pleaded, Hux was a _general_. Someone far too important to the enemy to ever be kept alive. He knew the outcome. He knew just what awaited: a quick death, leaving this poor, miserable girl to mourn him for not knowing any better.

At least he would die with this secret.

That was, until Hux was forced to turn, a pair of strong arms latching tight around his neck. Rey kissed him desperately, her lips hard, her stance forceful enough to almost knock him off balance. Hux stumbled back slightly, but, eyes wide, he suddenly kissed back, if only to give them both that sweet, horrid taste of failure. His hands grazed her hips.

They'd failed.

But oh, did he need that.

Rey trained her gaze back to the landing ships, her hands shaking as they threaded through the ends of his hair. Hux had been so caught up in Rey and what she felt that he just realized that he, too, shook just as much, if not more. Could feel his heart pounding so loud, so quickly, he thought it might just burst out of his chest. He'd strategized the takedown of planets, had seen life vanish before his eyes without a second thought, yet _this_ frightened him more than anything, more than all of that combined.

The thought of him _losing_ her… of knowing that, most likely, _she_ would lose him.

"No matter what happens, just remember that I love you," Rey declared over the roar of the engines as they started to land. Her hands wouldn't leave him, now that she'd blown their cover.

Everything passed in a matter of moments, but time slowed as Hux repeated those dangerous three words over and over again in his mind. Someone thought him capable of being loved. For once, someone saw past every mistake he'd made, every terrible thing he'd done—and _loved_ him despite that.

Yet he _felt_ it. Could tell that, somehow, he'd known her love for quite a bit now, and just admitted to himself that perhaps he could be selfish. Could let himself be loved, no matter how briefly, no matter how much he knew he didn't deserve it.

Even Hux couldn't hear himself murmur, "I know," back to Rey. But he could feel that the words came through to her. That they didn't feel condescending, or like he was cutting himself from having to say it back. That him acknowledging her love could be as enlightened as he could possibly get.

Their arms tightened around each other as the ships finally landed before them.

 **This was so long everyone I'm so sorry.**

 **Here's to hoping TLJ won't kill my ship (who're we kidding I'm stuck on the Reyux train forever). And here's to hoping I'll stop posting for this story because it needs to just end (hint: it probably won't).**


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